Warriors owner Joe Lacob bashes NBA luxury tax rules on Andre Iguodala’s
podcast
The outspoken owner says it's not fair Warriors have to pay $200 million
in tax penalties for a mostly-homegrown roster
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 20: Golden State Warriors
co-Executive Chairman and CEO Joe Lacob waves his hands to the crowd as
he’s introduced during the Championship rally and parade on Market
Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, June 20, 2022. The Warriors
won their fourth NBA Championship in eight seasons after defeating the
Boston Celtics in Game 6. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 20: Golden State Warriors
co-Executive Chairman and CEO Joe Lacob waves his hands to the crowd as
he’s introduced during the Championship rally and parade on Market
Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, June 20, 2022. The Warriors
won their fourth NBA Championship in eight seasons after defeating the
Boston Celtics in Game 6. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
By ALEX SIMON | asimon@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: July 15, 2022 at 4:53 p.m. | UPDATED: July 15, 2022 at 6:08 p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/07/15/warriors-owner-joe-lacob-bashes-nba-luxury-tax-rules-on-andre-iguodalas-podcast/

It’s probably fun to be Warriors owner Joe Lacob right now. But in the
world of NBA owners, it does seem like he is persona non grata.

Lacob spent the early part of this week in New York for NBA’s board of
governors meeting, then sat down with Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner’s
Point Forward podcast for a wide-ranging discussion in a 50-minute
episode, touching on several topics.

While many were telling tales of his past, Lacob’s present payroll for
the Warriors roster is clearly at the front of his mind — and he doesn’t
seem to like the “penal” luxury tax rules that the NBA has set up, either.

“Obviously, it’s self-serving for me to say this. But I think it’s a
very unfair system,” Lacob said of the luxury tax. “Because (the way)
our team is built, the top eight players have been drafted by this team.
We have guys that were undrafted that we found and developed in Santa
Cruz. We don’t have one free agent that is not a minimum. Not one.”

Lacob referenced ESPN’s Brian Windhorst’s “checkbook win” comment from
after Andrew Wiggins led the Warriors to the win in Game 5 of the NBA
Finals, acknowledging that the Warriors were fortunate to be able to
turn the departing Kevin Durant into such a key player

“The only guy that you could make a case for, us outspending the
competition and not being fair, is we turned Durant leaving into one guy
(D’Angelo Russell) that turned into Wiggins, and that worked out great,”
Lacob said. “But they all criticized us for doing it and said we
overpaid and did a bad deal.

“You can’t have it both ways, you know?”

Lacob acknowledged that he understands how the Durant acquisition in
2016 rankled the league, but pointed out that, “anyone else would’ve
done it, too.” But Lacob is a clear believer that teams who draft and
develop their own players into superstars should not be financially
punished for wanting to keep them.

“I think the luxury tax, you should be paying a high luxury tax if
you’re using it to go get free agents and outspend your competition,”
Lacob said. “But if you’re developing your own guys and paying Steph
Curry what he deserves and Klay Thompson what he’s earned, why am I
paying $200 million in luxury tax? I don’t think that’s fair.”

It’s a sentiment shared by some around the association, including former
Nets assistant general manager and ESPN front office analyst Bobby
Marks. NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked about this exact issue on
the night of the NBA Draft by NBA TV’s Jared Greenberg, and he said he
didn’t view it as penalizing the team.

But while Silver has to deal with 30 owners with regard to the luxury
tax, it’s clear the owner of the NBA champions doesn’t agree with him.

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But that’s not all Lacob said to Iguodala and Turner, either. He went
deep into his journey into becoming the Warriors’ owner, discussing his
previous business moves and his background in medicine. He also said
that owning a basketball team was always his goal in his life and broke
down exactly how he ended up getting the Warriors over the other bidders
for the team in 2010, which included the far wealthier Oracle head Larry
Ellison.

Lacob also called the time he was booed by Warriors fans on Chris
Mullin’s jersey retirement night in 2012, with fans upset over the trade
of Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut, “one of the hardest things I’ve ever
had to overcome.” He added that he carried a prove-them-wrong attitude
toward his own team’s fanbase after the incident.

Lacob also said the decision to not use public funding to build Chase
Center, sticking solely to private financing, was “the greatest decision
I’ve ever made.” According to Lacob, the Warriors looked into building
in Oakland first but didn’t receive much feedback from the city, which
shifted their focus to the far more receptive San Francisco.

He also made note that the chase for public funding in California can
take years, pointing to the Oakland A’s as an example of the headaches
pursuing those dollars can add. And, in the same week that a San
Francisco Chronicle story highlighted how Lacob nearly bought the A’s,
he also may have taken a shot at owner John Fisher, too.

“When I hear, ‘They can’t do it,’ they need to be more creative. They
need to work harder. They need to be smarter,” Lacob said of how other
owners could finance a new facility privately.

Lacob was also asked about the “two timelines” plan and made it seem
very clear that he’s still a believer in the Warriors’ trio of young
players (James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody) and had high
praise for Wiggins, too. But overall, he seems pleased that the plan
they set is working.

“I don’t want to be bad for six years. I don’t want to fall off a
cliff,” Lacob said. “So we took a risk that we could win this title in
Steph’s … call it golden years — I think he’s got a number of years to
go — and we were right, and we did. We won, amazingly. I think we’re
going to be hopefully better next year. These young guys will be better.
Steph’s still got it — sorry to the rest of the league, but I don’t see
him getting any worse.

“I know it was a highly risky strategy, Andre, but it worked, and now
we’re really set. We won and we’ve got this great future, potentially.
I’m just really proud of what this team achieved. I really hoped that we
could do it, but I didn’t know if we could do it, and you guys did it.”

And as for Lacob’s goal as an owner? The self-proclaimed “maniacal” man
wants to keep apace with former Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who went to 16
NBA Finals in 33 years as an owner. So far, Lacob’s at six in 12 years.

“That 50 percent rate, I don’t know if we can continue that,” Lacob
said. “But I’m sure as hell going to try.”

[video: Lacob talks ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKMU_X92crg]

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Alex Simon | Sports Digital Strategist/Editor
Alex is a sports digital strategist and editor for Bay Area News Group.
He’s been in journalism for years as an editor, reporter and adjunct
professor. Alex enjoys weekend adventures and loves In-N-Out Burger a
bit too much.